Pete Thomas Outdoors

What's the history of the Tejon Ranch elk?

In support of the California Department of Fish and Game and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:

Question: I live in Stallion Springs, a rural community about 15 miles west of Tehachapi, and we have bands of elk that roam in the neighborhood. They move freely between the adjoining huge Tejon Ranch and the neighboring Bear Valley Springs community. I have been told by a born-and-raised Tehachapi native that the elk escaped in the early 1970s from a high fence operation located in the nearby Cummings Valley. Are they Rocky Mountain Elk or the Roosevelt subspecies? How does the Tejon Ranch conduct hunts for these elk when we never see anything in the hunting regulations about this? And, since their rutting season usually runs from late October into November in other areas, why do these animals go into the rut from the end of August to the very beginning of October? Furthermore, deer hunt zone D10 is all on private land and that zone is open to draw. Thanks for any light you can shed on these questions. (Ron A., Stallion Springs)

Answer: In 1966, the Department of Fish and Game issued a permit for the release of 300 Rocky Mountain Elk imported from Yellowstone National Park into a fenced compound on a game farm ranch in southern Kern County. By 1967, 290 elk had been shipped from Yellowstone, but due to the stress of transport and possibly other causes, only 277 survived to be released inside the ranch enclosure. Many elk died within the enclosure from several diseases brought on by stress induced by confinement, as well as a new and different diet. Later that year elk began escaping because of the lack of fence maintenance. It is not known exactly how many animals escaped to the wild (California Fish and Game, 61(4):239-241. 1975).

According to DFG’s Elk and Pronghorn coordinator, Joe Hobbs, approximately 200 animals currently reside in this area in an around the Tejon Ranch. Elk game farming is no longer allowed in California. The Tejon Ranch runs their elk hunting through the DFG’s Private Lands Management Program. In exchange for conducting habitat improvement projects on their land that benefit wildlife, landowners can receive special PLM elk tags each year. The numbers and types of tags correspond to the population level of elk and the current conditions on the ranch. Elk in this area may have an earlier rutting season due to the warmer weather in Southern California.

Q: I just bought two crabs and found one with black spots on the outside shell. I’ve seen these before and usually avoid them, but this time the seller sneaked it into my package. When I called him about it, he said he didn’t know what it is, but it doesn’t permeate the shell. This isn’t true—I’ve seen this stuff on the flesh at the joints. It looks like oil. Can you enlighten me? Besides being ugly, is it unsafe? (Mari V., Berkeley)

Southland anglers must know the closed areas starting Jan. 1

Beginning Jan. 1, when rules within Southern California's newly established marine protected areas go into effect, it will be up to saltwater anglers to know where they can and cannot fish.

The Department of Fish and Game, in a news release, stated that wardens will be on the water and "will take appropriate enforcement actions, which could include education, warning, citation or arrest, depending on the violation."

Anglers can inspect maps at www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/scmpas_list.asp. They can also look up information about the closed and restricted on their iPhones, iPads and Android devices by visiting http://www.dfg.ca.gov/m/MPA and following instructions on the MPA mobile website.

With the App they can look up marine parks, reserves and conservation areas by name, or find these areas by county. They can look up maps and regulations, and can also track their location using the GPS on their mobile device, to see if they've crossed an MPA boundary.

The closures and restricted areas are widespread, with 50 new MPAs encompassing about 15% of a region that spans from Point Conception to the U.S.-Mexico border.  The state-mandated closures are designed to reduce impact on South Coast fisheries.

All of this will take getting used to for private boaters and even commercial sportfishing boat captains and landing operators. But plenty of information is available to ensure anglers are fishing legally.

This was a long, drawn-out and hotly controversial process, so it will be taken seriously by the DFG. Anglers should take it seriously, too.

-- Image courtesy of Pete Thomas Outdoors

Oregon wolf's epic journey may lead to California

A lone Oregon wolf in search of a mate and new territory is gaining notoriety for an epic journey that experts believe may continue into California. If that happens the wily predator will become the first confirmed wild wolf in the Golden State in nearly 90 years.

The 2 1/2-year-old male gray wolf, labeled by Oregon wildlife officials simply as OR7, has traveled a remarkable 730 miles since dispersing from the Imnaha pack in northeastern Oregon in September.

Biologists have not physically spotted OR7, and there have been no verified sightings of the animal since he began his marathon quest. But a GPS tracking unit relays OR7's position daily and he's presently utilizing wilderness northeast of Medford in portions of Klamath and Jackson counties, as close as 30 miles from California. It remains unclear whether he found an un-collared mate early in his travels.

OR7 is one of 24 known wolves in Oregon and the first documented wolf west of the Cascades in more than 60 years.

Though he has avoided towns, or passed through them undetected, he has acquired many fans, including environmental groups and Oregon school kids who are following his progress while participating in an Oregon Wild campaign to invent a more suitable name for OR7.

On its website, Oregon Wild spokesman Sean Stevens stated, "Part of the mystery of this wolf is we don't know what he looks like. Nobody has ever seen him."

But not everybody is a fan. Wolves were eradicated from the West in the early 1900s by trappers, and by ranchers trying to protect their  livestock.

The reintroduction of wolves in the Northern Rockies in 1995 was controversial because of concerns about livestock and possible impacts on elk herds in some areas. But the predators, believed to play an important role in a healthy ecosystem by thinning deer and elk herds of their weakest members, have flourished and spread to six states.

Injured snowboarder Kevin Pearce rides again

Nearly two years have passed since snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a violent crash that shattered his dream of participating in the Olympics and left him with a severe brain injury, facing long odds of a successful recovery. 

On Tuesday at Breckenridge, Colorado, Pearce rode a snowboard for the first time since his accident, and for family and friends, and just about anyone familiar with his story, the event was both inspirational and heartwarming (see video).

Pearce, who was a rising star and considered a favorite to win a medal at the Vancouver Games, remembers nothing about that December night in 2009. As he was preparing for the Olympic trials, something went awry while he was airborne, and he slammed his head on the lip of the icy halfpipe.

He'd spend the next several weeks in the hospital. He experienced loss of memory, blurred vision, and problems with balance and speech, as he left the hospital to enter an extensive period of rehabilitation.

His snowboarding career was over, but that didn't matter. His family and friends just hoped Pearce would recover enough to be able to enjoy a somewhat normal lifestyle.

Pearce put snowboarding aside and worked tirelessly at rehabilitation, ultimately regaining his speech and vision, while trying to reclaim enough balance to one day ride his snowboard again. That would be his personal Olympics.

"There are bigger things in life than snowboarding," he said during a recent interview. "It was my whole life for the last 10 years, and my life got flipped upside down 100%. So it's different now in every single way. What's so cool, though, is that I've been able to deal with it."

His ride at Breckenridge was remarkably smooth, his turns crisp. He smiled a lot and his personality shone. It was a good day on the slopes, one of the best days yet.

Scientists report rare sighting of blue whales off Washington

This has been a remarkable week for Southern California marine mammal enthusiasts. Killer whales appeared off three counties in three days (Friday through Sunday) and the trickle of migrating gray whales into local waters is becoming more pronounced.

But a sighting last Thursday of six blue whales off Washington state is more remarkable because it marked only the third confirmed sighting of the world's largest mammals off Washington in the last 50 years. The previous sightings were made in 2009, one during the winter, and involved single animals.

The sighting last Thursday was made by a team aboard a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife vessel, and by John Calambokidis and his Cascadia Research Collective crew. Both groups were at sea as part of a cooperative multi-agency research effort to learn more about the occurrence of blue whales off Washington and Oregon.

The blue whales were feeding in an area with humpback and fin whales, and what's nearly as surprising as the sighting itself was that it occurred so close to winter, at a time when most of the 2,000 or so blue whales that frequent California waters in the summer have migrated, presumably, to warmer waters far to the south.

During the pre-whaling era, blue whales considered the Pacific Northwest part of their territory, but they've been slow to return to the area.

Blue whales, which feed on tiny shrimp-like krill, can measure 100 feet and weigh as much as 150 tons. The sighting Thursday was made 25 miles beyond Westport. For more information, visit the Cascadia website, or view a story posted today on the Olympian website.

-- Blue whale images from the research voyage are courtesy of Cascadia Research in Olympia, Wash.

Baby orca vocalizes as boaters watch in awe (video)

Marine mammal enthusiasts were treated to a rare sighting of transient killer whales Friday, Saturday and Sunday in different Southern California regions. The orcas killed a sea lion during two of the sightings, off Rancho Palos Verdes and Newport Beach. During the latter sighting, a baby  orca was seen nursing with its mom.

But perhaps the highlight moment was captured Friday off Ventura when Luke Dutton, an employee with Island Packers, videotaped a baby orca vocalizing above the surface next to the boat, its cute high-pitch sounds seemingly directed at the boat's passengers.

The sounds can be heard at 3 seconds, 4 seconds and 7 seconds, but most audibly at 4 seconds.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a killer whale researcher who saw the same orcas on Saturday off Rancho Palos Verdes, said transient killer whales are stealthy ambush hunters but will often vocalize after a kill. The vocalizations can be heard beneath the surface, using a hydrophone. To hear them from above the surface is unusual.

Two of 12 orcas that were involved in all three sightings are calves estimated to be 10 and almost 12 months old. Schulman-Janiger has only heard a baby orca sing out above the surface once, off Monterey.

The 12 orcas were from three family groups and included four moms, one of them a grandmother. The cetaceans, which have been cataloged as part of a long-term photo-identification study, are most commonly seen off Monterey.

-- Note: Schulman-Janiger is director of the American Cetacean Society-Los Angeles Chapter's Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project, and the California Killer Whale Project

Orcas encountered in three Southland counties in three days

The killer whale watch is on off Southern California after 12 transient orcas made dramatic showings off Ventura on Friday, Rancho Palos Verdes on Saturday and Newport Beach on Sunday, before vanishing early Sunday afternoon. They were last seen headed offshore.

That's three counties in three days for the visiting cetaceans, which were seen preying on California sea lions during at least two of the three rare local encounters.

Researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who was off Palos Verdes on Saturday, said the 12 orcas included four moms (one a grandmother) from three family groups, and two calves that are less than a year old. She provided the accompanying image, which shows one of two brothers—estimated ages 13 and 8—performing what looks like a headstand.

The video below was filmed Saturday by Phil Garner from aboard a different boat.

 

On Saturday and Sunday the older orcas, after sea lion kills, appeared to be teaching the younger orcas how to attack the pinnipeds. The 12 orcas have been photo-catalogued and are most commonly seen off Monterey. They also have been sighted off British Columbia.

Luke Dutton, an Island Packers employee, witnessed the killer whales off Ventura and posted video clips of  39 and 22 seconds to his Facebook page. In the 22-second clip, a killer whale calf can be heard vocalizing (pay particular attention to the 4-second mark).

Only a handful of whale-watching boats are operating at this time —most landings wait till the day after Christmas to begin their gray whale excursions — but they'll be on orca-watch Monday, weather permitting.

-- Editor's note: Schulman-Janiger, director of the California Killer Whale project and Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project, would like to see fresh killer whale images for photo-identification purposes. She can be reached at Janiger@cox.net

Kelly Slater versus John John Florence again at Pipe Masters

Five rounds of the Billabong Pipe Masters have been held in two days in triple-overhead surf at iconic Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore. Standing out above a stellar field has been John John Florence, 19, who has scored two perfect 10s and on Friday defeated Kelly Slater, 39, in the non-elimination fourth round.

Now comes a quarterfinals rematch that might render the final anticlimactic.

Florence, a Pipeline local, is a rising star, and ratings leader of the prestigious Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. The Pipeline contest is the series' final jewel.

Slater, 39, has won 11 ASP World Tour championships and has dominated pro surfing for two decades. The Pipe Masters also is the World Tour season-finale. Slater clinched his 11th world title in the previous contest.

But the Floridian has plenty to prove; he was trounced by Florence in the best-two-waves format in the fourth round, 17.67 to 8.50, at Pipeline.

So the burning question is, how will he respond, after winning his fifth-round heat to force the rematch?

"I hope I'm not peaking too soon," said Florence, sporting a swollen and bloodied face from a wipeout and reef face-plant Friday. "I'm just going out there to get the best waves I can. It's so perfect ... it's the best Pipe in a long time. You just want to go on every wave.

"This is definitely a dream, just surfing these waves at my home break, beating Kelly ... This has definitely been the best year I've ever had."

Florence knows Pipeline better than most. He surfs the notoriously hollow break just about every chance he gets. Slater knows the break, too, and has won heats at Pipeline against far more established surfers than Florence.

But Slater, who won his first world title at age 20, less than a month after Florence was born, is realistic. "I see John John as the guy to beat," Slater said. "He's had two 10s and he's probably the best guy all around out here now. I lost to him earlier — it was kind of a non-elimination thing. But if I were to lose to him tomorrow, it's definitely no shame. I think he's better than everyone else in this contest."

This helps set the stage for what promises to be another eventful day of competition.

While the swell is expected to subside beginning Saturday, organizers are optimistic that the final seven heats of the Billabong Pipe Masters will get underway at 8 a.m., with the Pipe Masters champion and the Vans Triple Crown champion crowned at midday.

Which surfers do you expect to see at the top spots on the podium?

— Image of Kelly Slater in action at Pipeline on Friday is courtesy of Kirstin/ASP

Can 'Alabama Rig' be used for freshwater fishing in California?

In support of the California Department of Fish and Game and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:

Question: A recent innovation on the pro bass-fishing trail is something called the "Alabama Rig" which is similar to what is called an "Umbrella Rig" by saltwater anglers. The Alabama Rig consists of five or six lures [usually plastic grubs or small swimbaits] radiating from a central attachment point by wires, imitating a school of baitfish. It looks very similar to a "mobile" that you might suspend above a baby’s crib. Since all the lures have hooks in them, would this rig be legal for inland/freshwater fishing in California for bass or other species? (Steve C., Chico)

Answer: With the amount of money available through tournament fishing these days, anglers are constantly looking for the next big thing to help them catch more and bigger bass. We have received a lot of questions recently regarding the "Alabama Rig" and whether they are legal to use in California. Unfortunately, regulations in California differ from those in Alabama and this type of fishing tackle is not legal.

According to competitive bass angler and Department of Fish and Game game warden Tim Little, the traditional "Alabama Rig" (see photo at right) is not legal to use because it contains five separate lures each with a hook. California law allows for a maximum of three lures to be used on an individual line (whether the lure has a single hook as shown in your photograph or uses three hooks as allowed by law.)

In California, "all fish may be taken only by angling with one closely attended rod and line or one hand line with not more than three hooks nor more than three artificial lures (each lure may have three hooks attached) attached thereto" (California Code of Regulations, section 2.00).

To legally use the Alabama Rig in California inland waters, the rig must be attached to one rod with one line and no more than three of the attached lures containing hooks. Those lures containing hooks may have no more than three hooks attached to each lure. The other two could have hookless teasers. Some people locally have even developed a modified three wire rig (now called a Cali-rig), which is legal.

Q: I live in Southern California and maintain private fish tanks for my clients. I have a client that has a 5,000-gallon shark tank with a black tip reef shark. After hearing about other Requiem Sharks being seized (CCR Title 14, section 671 (c)(6)(A)), my client would like to know what he can do to have permits or if this shark has been grandfathered in as he bought the shark in 2008 with verifying receipts. Please let me know what we can do regarding this matter. (Ryan C.)

Giant surf generates thrills, spills on Day 1 of Pipeline contest

The first day of the Billabong Pipe Masters on Thursday will not soon be forgotten by any of the competitors who surfed in wildly epic conditions at the notorious Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.

A fresh swell and thunderous 15- to 20-foot breakers greeted ASP World Tour competitors for the event's first and second rounds. Some scored amazing rides, including future superstar John John Florence, 19, a local who registered a perfect 10 after getting fully barreled twice on the same wave.

Many surfers struggled because of the incredible volume of water rushing shoreward and jacking up over Pipeline's series of shallow reefs. There were broken boards, bruised bodies and egos, and an overall feeling of trepidation mixed with exhilaration.

"It's as gnarly as Pipe gets," said Tanner Gudauskas, a Southern Californian who endured two broken boards and did not advance past the second round. "I was super nervous watching, so many gnarly wipeouts. I just wanted to make it down the wave face but then I didn't on one wave. It happens so fast in the moment that you don't think about it. I'm just glad to be back on the beach."

The Pipe Masters is the World Tour season-finale and the third jewel in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, led by Florence, who described conditions as "dreamy" after advancing to the third round, which will commence Friday with more large surf on tap.

Jamie O'Brien, another local, described conditions as deadly but added: "These kinds of days I'm scared all day, but it's so fun and exciting. It's kind of cat-and-mouse--you've got to watch out for the big ones, not get cleaned out, then you get a perfect one that comes through."

Hawaii-based surfers fared best, understandably, but the world's top-ranked surfers, including 11-time and reigning world champion Kelly Slater, were seeded directly into the third round and will compete Friday.

One can only imagine what was going through their minds watching the action on Thursday.

— Photo shows Ian Walsh amid a cascade of whitewater at Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore. Credit: Cestari/ASP